I... need a filing cabinet. -Quagmire
I think I saw Emrakul in a cartoon with Japanese schoolgirls once. It didn't end well. -Qmark
Edit: Couldn't find a cookie, so here's an octopus. Enjoy. -Zigeif777

57718868 wrote:

58844013 wrote:

grandma pumps the threat she ramps.

If you believe in Jesus and love him and aren't afraid to admit it, put this in your sig.
Jun 30, 2010 -- 1:35AM, S1AL wrote:
Playing a bad deck in order to be original is like using crappy tools to build something. Not only does it look bad in the end, but nobody really thinks that you're cool for being unwilling to do things the way a professional would.

Look at the card. Now back to Jace. Now back to that card, now back to Jace! Sadly, it isn't Jace, but if it stopped being a junk rare and became relevant, it could act like it's Jace. Crack some Worldwake. What do you have? You have a Jace, the card you wish this card could be like. Look again. THE CARD IS NOW A $75 BILL. Anything possible when you play Magic with Jace and not junk rares.

For autocarding, write [c][/c] with the name of the card inside it.
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[c=Curse of the Cabal]Captain Never-resolves[/c] = Captain Never-resolves
For using the decklist format, follow this:
[deck]
4* Terramorphic Expanse
4* Evolving Wilds
...
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It equals:

I like storm crow because I really like crows in real life, as an animal, and the card isn't terribly stupid, but packs a good deal of nostalgia and also a chunck of the game's history. So it's perhaps one of the cards I have most affection to, but not because "lol storm crow is bad hurr hurr durr".

Although I do assume you deliberately refer to them (DCI) as The Grand Imperial Convocation of Evil just for the purposes of making them sound like an ancient and terrible conspiracy.

Now, now.
1994 doesn't quite qualify as "ancient".

56734518 wrote:

Oh, it's a brilliant plan. You see, Bolas was travelling through shadowmoor, causing trouble, when he saw a Wickerbough Elder with its stylin' dead scarecrow hat. Now, Bolas being Bolas took the awesome hat and he put it on his head, but even with all his titanic powers of magic he couldn't make it fit. He grabbed some more scarecrows, but then a little kithkin girl asked if he was trying to build a toupee. "BY ALL THE POWERS IN THE MULTIVERSE!" he roared, "I WILL HAVE A HAT WORTHY OF MY GLORY." and so he went through his Dark Lore of Doom (tm) looking for something he could make into a hat that would look as stylish on him as a scarecrow does on a treefolk. He thought about the Phyrexians, but they were covered in goopy oil that would make his nonexistant hair greasy. He Tried out angels for a while but they didn't sit quite right. Then, he looked under "e" (because in the Elder Draconic alphabet, "e" for Eldrazi is right next to "h" for Hat) in his Dark Lore of Doom and saw depictions of the Eldrazi, and all their forms.
"THIS SHALL BE MY HAT!" he declared, poking a picture of Emrakul, "AND WITH IT I WILL USHER IN A NEW AGE OF DARKNESS -- ER, I MEAN A NEW AGE OF FASHION!"
And so Nicol Bolas masterminded the release of the Eldrazi.

57864098 wrote:

Rhox War Monk just flips pancakes, and if games have told us anything, it's that food = life.

56747598 wrote:

76973988 wrote:

This thread has gotten creepy. XP

Really?
Really?
The last couple days have been roughly every perverse fetish imaginable, but it only got "creepy" when speculation on Mother of Runes's mob affiliation came up?

Really? Hmm. Does this mean the rumors of New Phyrexia/Mirrodin Pure being in the same box (18 black boosters, 18 white) as a "split set" might be true? Hmmmmm.

I was just thinking that exact thing. I originally thought that idea was wacky, but I also thought that no order of Mirrodin Pure first New Phyrexia second or the opposite made that complete sense from a storytelling standpoint. Both of them sound like the end. So wait. What if Mirrodin becomes Besieged and ends up getting split into a Pure Mirrodin and a New Phyrexia, two sets released simultaneously as was theorized. Doesn't it just make more sense for these two settings to be alternative, not chronological?

Now I think this whole theory makes a lot more sense from a storytelling standpoint, marketing, branding, and design standpoint. It seems more elegant in this context and like exactly the kind of experiment that Wizards would pull at this point.

I mean in Lorwyn they had 2 mini blocks or 1 large block depending on how you look at it. Alara was mostly normal in terms of set structure (though the themes were as varied as ever). Zendikar gave us a mini block finished by a semi-stand alone set like Coldsnap (which I don't really understand why they did it that way, but I understand it was successful and different). Now we can have Big Set, Small Set, Split Set so they could print as many new cards as in Rise of the Eldrazi, but put them into different packs in such a way as to add another element to limited and many other things.

Here's a situation that comes up all the time. You go to a store, you know you are getting new packs today, but what to buy? Well whatever is newest is usually the answer which takes any fun out of choosing. "Well I guess I'll get some more M11, need to grind for more Baneslayer Angels or Primeval Titans or whatever." But what if there were TWO newest sets. You would have to think about what the differences are between the sets. Do you prefer the theme of one, is there a specific card you are trying to get, maybe a specific mechanic you are building a deck around, maybe one set has a higher average value while the other has bigger bombs. Regardless it is a decision. And with a company like Wizards, decisions are good for them. This decision will reward the person with new cards no matter what, create a moment to ponder where there may not have been one before (and if you like playing Magic, you like solving mini puzzles like this). And the decision is more likely to result in you buying more. I think when faced with the decision of which set to buy a pack from, more people will choose both than neither. And of course to the successful competitive player it's a no brainer, I must buy twice as much Magic now in order to be competitive.

At this point if this ISN'T what Wizards is doing next year then they are missing a great opportunity.

Oh, also we know that the code names for this block were "Lights, Camera, Action". But you may remember Lorwyn block back when it was 3 sets was "Peanut, Butter, Jelly". Then when they decided to do a large block they called the 4th "Sandwich". Then when they decided instead that it would be designed more like 2 small blocks they changed it to "Doughnut" so it would be "Peanut, Butter" and "Jelly, Doughnut".

Perhaps the new block structure this time around would be "Lights, Camera, Action/Adventure"? It's nothing of consequence probably, but I challenge you to come up with something better!

I saw someone else post something, but he must have deleted it. But the question he brought up is then why did they copyright sets 1, 3 and 4 simultaneously and not 2? Well of course I am rumormilling here so I could be just dead wrong and there could be some way I haven't thought of that would make this impossible or impractical to implement, or just that it was never on Wizards' mind to do. But it still seems like a good idea.

Anyway, if I were to take a guess, I could say that maybe the initial idea of the set was to return to a Mirrodin in conflict again in the big set, and then by the final set in the block to have a dichotomy between the good and evil parallel worlds. In that case, I would come up with names for set 1, 3 and 4 before I came up with the name of 2 (just the train of thought would lead to those more important sets getting names first), if indeed 2 was in the original plan. Perhaps Besieged wasn't in the original plan but they decided that they needed to set up the split better with a middle set. Or more likely, that they still needed to have the 3 normal release dates. They couldn't go make Scars of Mirrodin in the Fall, Mirrodin Pure/New Phyrexia in the Winter/Spring, and nothing in the Spring/Summer. Or both.

Or, of course, I could be way off base on all of this. But I'll tell you this, Wizards is up to something. They always are. They are always working on new gimmicks that are fun, interesting, exciting, never done before, and of course profitable. All of which this plan has in spades, which is why I said, if this isn't what they're doing then they are missing out on a possibly great idea.

Mirrodin had a lot to offer the first time around, if they've learned their lessons from the problems it had we should be in for something neat.

And I think the two booster thing is a really neat idea.

And when will Relentless Rats finally be templated as Basic Creature - Rat (A deck may have any number of basic creatures.) ?

Proud member of C.A.R.D. - Campaign Against Rare Duals
"...but the time has come when lands just need to be better. Creatures have gotten stronger, spells have always been insane, and lands just sat in this awkward place of necessity." Jacob Van Lunen on the refuge duals, 16 Sep 2009.
"While it made thematic sense to separate enemy and allied color fixing in the past, we have come around to the definite conclusion that it is just plain incorrect from a game-play perspective. This is one of these situations where game play should just trump flavor." - Sam Stoddard on ending the separation of allied/enemy dual lands. 05 July 2013

For autocarding, write [c][/c] with the name of the card inside it.
[c]Island[/c] = Island
For linking a card to Gatherer without writting the name of said card for readers, use the autocard brackets together with and equal sign and right the name of the real card. Then put the message you want inside the tags, like you would do with autocarding. Like this:
[c=Curse of the Cabal]Captain Never-resolves[/c] = Captain Never-resolves
For using the decklist format, follow this:
[deck]
4* Terramorphic Expanse
4* Evolving Wilds
...
[/deck]
It equals:

I like storm crow because I really like crows in real life, as an animal, and the card isn't terribly stupid, but packs a good deal of nostalgia and also a chunck of the game's history. So it's perhaps one of the cards I have most affection to, but not because "lol storm crow is bad hurr hurr durr".

Although I do assume you deliberately refer to them (DCI) as The Grand Imperial Convocation of Evil just for the purposes of making them sound like an ancient and terrible conspiracy.

Now, now.
1994 doesn't quite qualify as "ancient".

56734518 wrote:

Oh, it's a brilliant plan. You see, Bolas was travelling through shadowmoor, causing trouble, when he saw a Wickerbough Elder with its stylin' dead scarecrow hat. Now, Bolas being Bolas took the awesome hat and he put it on his head, but even with all his titanic powers of magic he couldn't make it fit. He grabbed some more scarecrows, but then a little kithkin girl asked if he was trying to build a toupee. "BY ALL THE POWERS IN THE MULTIVERSE!" he roared, "I WILL HAVE A HAT WORTHY OF MY GLORY." and so he went through his Dark Lore of Doom (tm) looking for something he could make into a hat that would look as stylish on him as a scarecrow does on a treefolk. He thought about the Phyrexians, but they were covered in goopy oil that would make his nonexistant hair greasy. He Tried out angels for a while but they didn't sit quite right. Then, he looked under "e" (because in the Elder Draconic alphabet, "e" for Eldrazi is right next to "h" for Hat) in his Dark Lore of Doom and saw depictions of the Eldrazi, and all their forms.
"THIS SHALL BE MY HAT!" he declared, poking a picture of Emrakul, "AND WITH IT I WILL USHER IN A NEW AGE OF DARKNESS -- ER, I MEAN A NEW AGE OF FASHION!"
And so Nicol Bolas masterminded the release of the Eldrazi.

57864098 wrote:

Rhox War Monk just flips pancakes, and if games have told us anything, it's that food = life.

56747598 wrote:

76973988 wrote:

This thread has gotten creepy. XP

Really?
Really?
The last couple days have been roughly every perverse fetish imaginable, but it only got "creepy" when speculation on Mother of Runes's mob affiliation came up?

I... need a filing cabinet. -Quagmire
I think I saw Emrakul in a cartoon with Japanese schoolgirls once. It didn't end well. -Qmark
Edit: Couldn't find a cookie, so here's an octopus. Enjoy. -Zigeif777

57718868 wrote:

58844013 wrote:

grandma pumps the threat she ramps.

If you believe in Jesus and love him and aren't afraid to admit it, put this in your sig.
Jun 30, 2010 -- 1:35AM, S1AL wrote:
Playing a bad deck in order to be original is like using crappy tools to build something. Not only does it look bad in the end, but nobody really thinks that you're cool for being unwilling to do things the way a professional would.

Look at the card. Now back to Jace. Now back to that card, now back to Jace! Sadly, it isn't Jace, but if it stopped being a junk rare and became relevant, it could act like it's Jace. Crack some Worldwake. What do you have? You have a Jace, the card you wish this card could be like. Look again. THE CARD IS NOW A $75 BILL. Anything possible when you play Magic with Jace and not junk rares.

I... need a filing cabinet. -Quagmire
I think I saw Emrakul in a cartoon with Japanese schoolgirls once. It didn't end well. -Qmark
Edit: Couldn't find a cookie, so here's an octopus. Enjoy. -Zigeif777

57718868 wrote:

58844013 wrote:

grandma pumps the threat she ramps.

If you believe in Jesus and love him and aren't afraid to admit it, put this in your sig.
Jun 30, 2010 -- 1:35AM, S1AL wrote:
Playing a bad deck in order to be original is like using crappy tools to build something. Not only does it look bad in the end, but nobody really thinks that you're cool for being unwilling to do things the way a professional would.

Look at the card. Now back to Jace. Now back to that card, now back to Jace! Sadly, it isn't Jace, but if it stopped being a junk rare and became relevant, it could act like it's Jace. Crack some Worldwake. What do you have? You have a Jace, the card you wish this card could be like. Look again. THE CARD IS NOW A $75 BILL. Anything possible when you play Magic with Jace and not junk rares.

Could you keep the rumors in sblock please? This thread isn't about future set especulation, sometimes people don't want to read what can happen, even if it's just a supposition.

Sorry, I don't even know how to sblock (yet). But considering it is still totally rumor I didn't even think of it as a spoiler. Also, just what do you expect to find in a discussion of an upcoming set? Us to spend page upon page extolling the merits of the logo design? Naw, we're gonna speculate and share what we know and what we think about it.

Is the time interval between SoM (Oct-01-2010) release and MB (Feb-04-2011) release the usual interval for a 2nd set in a block to be released or is that like a crazy much longer than usual delay?

Well the first weekend in October is always the beginning of a new block. Worldwake came out last February 5th, Conflux was February 6th, Morningtide was February 1... looking back it appears every one of these was released the first weekend in February, so no surprise there. And we can expect the third set(s) to come out some time next May. Sorry, no clues there.

So they've cleverly back-ended a way to make five sets a year now. What's the big deal?

Actually, far more than that, and you may not even realize it.

From the Vault: Relics, Duel Decks: Elspeth vs. Tezzeret, Archenemy, The Deckbuilder's Toolkit, Duels of the Planeswalkers on Steam (and two expansions, one new to XBLA), Duels of the Planeswalkers decks, Phyrexia vs. The Coalition, Premium Deck Series: Fire and Lightning, and Magic the Gathering: Tactics (for PS3 and PC) are all the other Magic products I can think of off the top of my head that have or will come out THIS YEAR ALONE BESIDES Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi, Magic 2011 and Scars of Mirrodin. Oh and of course all of their licensed gear like sleeves, deck boxes, playmats, shirts, hats, shoes, soda and on and on. The Sorcerer's Apprentice almost even counts in my book, but not quite.

Also, nice name QMark. Yours is a variation on the name I always try to get

From the Vault: Relics, Duel Decks: Elspeth vs. Tezzeret, Archenemy, The Deckbuilder's Toolkit, Duels of the Planeswalkers on Steam (and two expansions, one new to XBLA), Duels of the Planeswalkers decks, Phyrexia vs. The Coalition, Premium Deck Series: Fire and Lightning, and Magic the Gathering: Tactics (for PS3 and PC) are all the other Magic products I can think of off the top of my head that have or will come out THIS YEAR ALONE BESIDES Worldwake, Rise of the Eldrazi, Magic 2011 and Scars of Mirrodin. Oh and of course all of their licensed gear like sleeves, deck boxes, playmats, shirts, hats, shoes, soda and on and on. The Sorcerer's Apprentice almost even counts in my book, but not quite.

I don't think we can count all of these products as "sets". And I don't even talk about sleeves and deck boxes lol ... but yeah, I see your point in noticing all the side products we get now, it's big.

Well of course I don't consider any of those in the first section to be "sets" but to say "they figured out how to print 5 sets in a year" is to say "they figured out another way to make more money off of us by making more products we will want to buy". I think many of us, myself included think of Magic as 4ish sets a year but sets are not their only products anymore, not even close, and we will collectively buy tons of these smaller products without realizing how much more there is to buy now.

I always saw it as the folks in marketing thought players would think Jace was "cool". So they put him everywhere. I don't find him nearly as cool as Gideon or Ajani Venjeant myself.They didn't mention that he was also on the Counterspell in the Jace vs. Chandra duel deck.

Noticed that too, only it seems to be a fancy Mek'leth to me.
Wait, this is a Magic forum...
Seriously though, the extra cards could mean anything, but the missing expansion symbol is really baffling. I really hope this is an omission that will soon be revealed (maybe in a making magic column?).

Scars of Mirrodin Game Day is offering special prizes for "affiliated" decks. It sounds like there are some kind(s) of factions you or your deck can be a part of in Mirrodin block that can make your deck affiliated.

Some people have claimed to see watermarks on cards like it was done in Ravnica block to denote cards for a specific guild like Azorius Signet but that these new ones can be a Mirrodin symbol, whatever that is, or a phyrexian symbol shown on about every other phyrexian card or here: www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.a...

This could set us up for something like playing a good or evil deck the whole way along this block and then by the third set we choose a good or evil pack.

@Qmark:The picture was amusing the first time I saw it, but now it's starting to feel a bit old ;)

I always saw it as the folks in marketing thought players would think Jace was "cool". So they put him everywhere. I don't find him nearly as cool as Gideon or Ajani Venjeant myself.They didn't mention that he was also on the Counterspell in the Jace vs. Chandra duel deck.

Yes, I think that he's considered to be the cool Planeswalkers that teenagers want to be like. Or something.And he's also in some other cards too, like Jace's Erasure and [c]Jace's Ingenuity[/C],

For autocarding, write [c][/c] with the name of the card inside it.
[c]Island[/c] = Island
For linking a card to Gatherer without writting the name of said card for readers, use the autocard brackets together with and equal sign and right the name of the real card. Then put the message you want inside the tags, like you would do with autocarding. Like this:
[c=Curse of the Cabal]Captain Never-resolves[/c] = Captain Never-resolves
For using the decklist format, follow this:
[deck]
4* Terramorphic Expanse
4* Evolving Wilds
...
[/deck]
It equals:

I like storm crow because I really like crows in real life, as an animal, and the card isn't terribly stupid, but packs a good deal of nostalgia and also a chunck of the game's history. So it's perhaps one of the cards I have most affection to, but not because "lol storm crow is bad hurr hurr durr".

Although I do assume you deliberately refer to them (DCI) as The Grand Imperial Convocation of Evil just for the purposes of making them sound like an ancient and terrible conspiracy.

Now, now.
1994 doesn't quite qualify as "ancient".

56734518 wrote:

Oh, it's a brilliant plan. You see, Bolas was travelling through shadowmoor, causing trouble, when he saw a Wickerbough Elder with its stylin' dead scarecrow hat. Now, Bolas being Bolas took the awesome hat and he put it on his head, but even with all his titanic powers of magic he couldn't make it fit. He grabbed some more scarecrows, but then a little kithkin girl asked if he was trying to build a toupee. "BY ALL THE POWERS IN THE MULTIVERSE!" he roared, "I WILL HAVE A HAT WORTHY OF MY GLORY." and so he went through his Dark Lore of Doom (tm) looking for something he could make into a hat that would look as stylish on him as a scarecrow does on a treefolk. He thought about the Phyrexians, but they were covered in goopy oil that would make his nonexistant hair greasy. He Tried out angels for a while but they didn't sit quite right. Then, he looked under "e" (because in the Elder Draconic alphabet, "e" for Eldrazi is right next to "h" for Hat) in his Dark Lore of Doom and saw depictions of the Eldrazi, and all their forms.
"THIS SHALL BE MY HAT!" he declared, poking a picture of Emrakul, "AND WITH IT I WILL USHER IN A NEW AGE OF DARKNESS -- ER, I MEAN A NEW AGE OF FASHION!"
And so Nicol Bolas masterminded the release of the Eldrazi.

57864098 wrote:

Rhox War Monk just flips pancakes, and if games have told us anything, it's that food = life.

56747598 wrote:

76973988 wrote:

This thread has gotten creepy. XP

Really?
Really?
The last couple days have been roughly every perverse fetish imaginable, but it only got "creepy" when speculation on Mother of Runes's mob affiliation came up?

"A player who concedes or eliminates him or herself is disqualified from the event. If a player is decked, he or she still loses but may continue in the event."

Guys, this rule doesn't work.Cards like Jinxed Choker and Jinxxed Idol literally become "Ban target player from this tournament and deny them any prize support."

This is extremely unhealthy for a multiplayer game. If a player wants to concede, or 'needs' to, that's perfectly fine.

Back in the 4th edition starter deck boxes (back before precons and tournament packs) there was a note that said that when a player would die, he effectively teleports out at the last second and does not die. There are still players who play the game that way and it's perfectly reasonable.

If I attack with 2 living hives to a defenseless opponent and have a noble purpose in play but I'm at 5 life, I've made a mistake. That player can forfeit during the declare blockers phase, preventing me from gaining any life or getting any insect tokens, in the exact same way that baneslayer can't gain me any life if she's trying to deal damage to something that is not there.

This is a perfectly valid move that encourages smart gameplay and the concept of weighing the risk and the reward. Do not overextend for the win unless you have a backup plan.

There will always be players who are opposed to the idea and think that you should never leave the game in such a way as to punish the player who killed you. They're obviously upset at the idea that someone no longer in the game should be able to affect it - but that's not really how it's working. It allows players with no other options to make their death memorable and to be a contender up to and including their death.

Creating rules to discourage this is inadvisable because they backfire very easily.

Were you thinking of playing Phage in this format? good luck. one good play from a single opponent and you don't just lose, you get kicked out of the tournament. Cards shouldn't do that unless they have silver borders, and if you're going to allow stuff like that, go all out.

"A player who concedes or eliminates him or herself is disqualified from the event. If a player is decked, he or she still loses but may continue in the event."

Guys, this rule doesn't work.Cards like Jinxed Choker and Jinxxed Idol literally become "Ban target player from this tournament and deny them any prize support."

This is extremely unhealthy for a multiplayer game. If a player wants to concede, or 'needs' to, that's perfectly fine.

Back in the 4th edition starter deck boxes (back before precons and tournament packs) there was a note that said that when a player would die, he effectively teleports out at the last second and does not die. There are still players who play the game that way and it's perfectly reasonable.

If I attack with 2 living hives to a defenseless opponent and have a noble purpose in play but I'm at 5 life, I've made a mistake. That player can forfeit during the declare blockers phase, preventing me from gaining any life or getting any insect tokens, in the exact same way that baneslayer can't gain me any life if she's trying to deal damage to something that is not there.

This is a perfectly valid move that encourages smart gameplay and the concept of weighing the risk and the reward. Do not overextend for the win unless you have a backup plan.

There will always be players who are opposed to the idea and think that you should never leave the game in such a way as to punish the player who killed you. They're obviously upset at the idea that someone no longer in the game should be able to affect it - but that's not really how it's working. It allows players with no other options to make their death memorable and to be a contender up to and including their death.

Creating rules to discourage this is inadvisable because they backfire very easily.

Were you thinking of playing Phage in this format? good luck. one good play from a single opponent and you don't just lose, you get kicked out of the tournament. Cards shouldn't do that unless they have silver borders, and if you're going to allow stuff like that, go all out.